Is iOS Really Unhackable? NSA Found Spying on US Public Through iPhone Apps

June 7, 2013 - 4 minutes read

Let it be known that contradictory to earlier reports, US Government agencies have free access to spy on private information contained on your smartphone, tablet, and PC. Apple’s iOS platform is not unhackable.

The National Security Administration (NSA) is perhaps America’s most mysterious and powerful Government institution. Feared by foreign nations and regarded as untrustworthy by a wary American public, the NSA’s clandestine activities have come into the public eye like never before.

[blockquote cite=”NSA Spying on iPhone users since 2008″ align=”right”]News has come to light showing the US Government’s blatant disregard for democratic values, spying on US citizens and non-citizens alike, collecting a treasure trove of personal and private information on billions of people… >> read more on NSA iPhone Hack[/blockquote]

According to a hard hitting investigation conducted by the Guardian Newspaper and Washington Post, the NSA has secretly been collecting phone records on millions of Americans and foreign nationals. An inside source also leaked an unnerving report to the media that exposed a massive campaign by the NSA and FBI to spy on the internet activity of foreigners and Americans alike.

According to the Washington Post article, “The National Security Agency and the FBI are tapping directly into the central servers of nine leading U.S. Internet companies, extracting audio and video chats, photographs, e-mails, documents, and connection logs that enable analysts to track foreign targets, according to a top-secret document… The program, code-named PRISM, has not been made public until now.”

The nine tech giants found to be colluding with the NSA include Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, and Apple. Apparently the PRISM evolved from George Bush’s secret warrantless surveillance program that launched in 2007. Microsoft was the first company to capitulate to government pressure and began fully cooperating with spy agencies in the US and UK from 2007 to present day.

Government legislation outlined in the FISA Bill gave spy agencies the ability to snoop on an individuals electronic communications under the pretext of security protection without the need to show probable cause.

The NSA’s power doesn’t come from the backing of a strong Army or Airforce but from gathering and interpreting massive amounts of information. Big data is the organization’s most dangerous weapon and it’s reach is universal. With the exploding popularity of iOS and Android devices, mobile apps have become a big part of the NSA’s strategy to collect private electronic information. Applications running on the iOS platform can NOT be considered secure when the company that runs the App Store (Apple) has given the Government full access to secretly spy on your phone, tablet and PC activity without ever telling you.

As an iPhone app developer it is deeply disturbing to see the US Government’s blatant disregard for the inalienable right to personal privacy. Congress has been at the forefront of pushing the tech industry to take data protection seriously and safeguard personal privacy. The hypocrisy of these Government institutions is absolutely appalling.

Countless lawsuits have been filed against companies for leaking consumer data and not taking proper precaution to prevent data breaches. The Government using these very same underhanded tactics, claiming it is for “our own protection” is not a valid argument. The Los Angeles iPad app developer community will be following this story very closely. More information on the NSA’s spy practices are expected to be released over the coming days.